Earlier this month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., made news targeting Robert Litan, a longtime staffer at the Brookings Institution, with a conflict of interest charge. Litan had co-authored a paper arguing against new financial industry regulations which Warren supported. Warren argued in a letter that industry-funded study was “editorially compromised work on behalf of an industry player seeking a specific conclusion.” After Warren’s letter and subsequent news coverage, Brookings immediately threw Litan under the bus and argued that the study “was not connected with Brookings in any way” and that when Litan “used his Brookings affiliation for congressional testimony he violated a policy that prohibits nonresidents from using their affiliation with Brookings for that purpose.” Litan, undoubtedly sensing his time at Brookings was over, resigned. The fallout in the days since has been entirely predictable. Litan’s defenders — including his co-author, centrist Democratic economists, and the right wing — are declaring a “McCarthyism of the left” and are using the incident as another example of Warren’s leftist ideas overtaking the Democratic establishment.Warren’s defenders are, rightly, pointing out that Litan’s right to speak and produce papers for corporate clients has not been repealed.